Have you ever experienced a situation where your preconceptions about something are shattered, only to have the pieces put back together again with the cracks visible? Like walking into an elementary school classroom and hearing the teacher shout obscenities, only to find out later you just misheard the whole thing. That’s ORPHAN.

It puts you into a position of complete unease then goes down a more conventional path as if it felt a need to ease your discomfort. What starts out bold ends up familiar, and tame.

The orphan of the title is Esther, played by young Isabelle Fuhrman, who has been adopted by Kate and John Coleman (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard) from an orphanage that specializes in caring for children that have trouble finding homes because they’ve gone past the age of preference for most adoptive parents. Kate and John have two children already, a son Daniel in his terrible tweens and adorable hearing impaired daughter Max. The family had a third child on the way, but a stillborn pregnancy left them devastated – in particular Kate who has yet to fully acclimate back to routine.

RIDDICK – Vin Diesel says David Twohy is currently writing the script for a new, smaller entry in the CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK. This one will be more of a Rambo vs. Aliens in space.

THE STRANGERS 2 – Commercial Euro director Laurent Briet is close to closing the deal on directing the sequel, which takes place in a, ugh, trailer park and was written by creator Bryan Bertino.

Remakes

PUPPETMASTER – Charles Band is apparently trying to drum up talk of a remake of PUPPETMASTER in 3-D. No one cares.

IT – Warner Brothers is backing a big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s IT to be written by Dave Kajganich, who wrote THE INVASION and is, according to the article, also writing a PET SEMETARY remake.

Indie, Foreign and Random News

Alex Proyas – Really hates 20th Century Fox. If you’ll recall, Proyas was knocked about during the production of I, ROBOT at Fox and in a recent interview to promote KNOWING he told CHUD of how he warns other filmmakers away from the studio.

Saturn Award Nominees – Looking for a laugh? Click on over to read the list of nominees. It’s cool, THE RUINS isn’t up for Best Horror Film, but THE HAPPENING, HELLBOY 2, and THE MUMMY 3 are.

»Emily in The Pros and Cons of the Zombie Apocalypse
I read this post with glee and I couldn’t agree more. If you were an elite member of a para-military group or a ninja you may survive for a while. But if you are sitting in front of your computer eating cheezy...